IJ-6 THE SIXTH CONFERENCE ON INNOVATION JOURNALISM

Innovation Journalism Vol.6 No.8 Nov 2009


IJ-6, the Sixth Conference on Innovation Journalism took place at Stanford University 18-20 May 2009. The conference materials have since then been available on the conference website. They can as from now also be referred to through the Innovation Journalism Publication Series.

The picture above is linked to a movie with the keynote speech by Vint Cerf. (On picture from right to left- Vint Cerf, Doug Engelbart, David Nordfors)

DIGITAL IDENTITIES AND JOURNALISM CONTENT - HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND JOURNALISM MAY CO-DEVELOP AND WHY SOCIETY SHOULD CARE

Innovation Journalism Vol.6 No.7
By Noam Lemelshtrich Latar and David Nordfors

Link: http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-6-7.pdf

Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms are changing professional journalism and related academic research dramatically. AI is penetrating journalism’s pillars: content (through automatic content analysis in all formats), and advertising (by scientific measurement of real consumer attention and targeting ads per user personality). Both content and advertising will change significantly.

The interactive nature of the new media will permit, for the first time, accurate measurement of the real attention consumers of media give to journalistic content, employing scientific methods. Advertisers will demand full validation of consumer ratings. Existing measuring methods will vanish. Advertisers ROI (Return On Investment) will determine the fate of advertising funded journalism companies across all media formats.

New ways to measure consumer attention and behavior, such as ‘engagement’ and ‘behavioral targeting,’ are becoming the new buzzwords describing deeper consumer involvement with content across multiple personal dimensions. New AI algorithms are being created that will allow automatically deciphering and tagging content to enable search engines to seek new, practical knowledge. Video, audio, images and texts are being converted to mathematical formulations that lend themselves to automatic ‘knowledge discovery analysis’ without human intervention.

AI engines will be used by media companies to search customers for content interests, automatically. Dependence on gaining measurable consumer attention can be expected to induce journalists in all media platforms to adjust content to maximize consumer attention and advertising dollars. New business models will be needed to reduce the intrinsic risk to journalistic freedom that the new methods will induce.

In this paper we shall describe the global efforts in devising universal standards for the management of digital identities and how artificial intelligence will be used to automatically annotate journalistic content. We shall describe the new concepts being used to increase consumer real attention to media content and describe the architecture of an AI engine that will target content according to consumer personalities. The consequences of these developments will be discussed.

WEAK SIGNALS IN INNOVATION JOURNALISM – CASES GOOGLE, FACEBOOK AND TWITTER

Innovation Journalism Vol.6 No.6 1 June 2009
By Turo Uskali

http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/injo-6-6.pdf

This article illuminates the news flows of three Silicon Valley companies – Google, Facebook and Twitter - particularly during the start-up ‘early’ phase. The article presents The News Evolution Model for better understanding the evolution of innovation news.

IT AND DEMOCRACY: AN ANALYSIS OF THE POWER OF DIGITAL IMAGES TO STRENGTHEN THE PUBLIC SPHERE AND DECISION-MAKING PROCESS

Innovation Journalism Vol 6 No 5, 1 June 2009
By Larry Pryor

http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/injo-6-5.pdf

Virtual Environments (VEs) open new possibilities for journalism. The advanced technology, which still resides mostly in laboratories, only requires adaptation and the imagination that can enable journalists to think with technology. The literature of VE theory shows the possibility exists to create alternative worlds that invite the public to share knowledge necessary for rational policy decisions. Our research has looked at using head-mounted displays to tell news stories, and we have worked with a multi-user 360° panoramic display. A project is now under way to use immersive techniques to model port expansions in Southern California. We will also seek to find ways to distribute this visual information across individual, community and institutional audiences.

PITFALLS OF ATTENTION WORK IN THE INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM

Innovation Journalism Vol 6 No 4, 1 June 2009
By Vilma Luoma-aho, Turo Uskali and Alisa Weinstein

http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/injo-6-4.pdf

In this study we concentrated on the pitfalls of attention work in the innovation ecosystem of Silicon Valley by interviewing 20 journalists, analysts, entrepreneurs, investors and PR practitioners in the fall 2008. The major outcome of the research was that attention work has become harder for both professional groups of journalists and public relations practitioners in recent times. After observing the many difficulties in communicating the innovations and innovation ecosystems, what requires more extended examination here is the concrete advice of helping the flow of innovation information. This does not only mean new tools or new types of media, but new types of collaboration between the different attention workers.

FOCUS ON GROWTH: INNOVATION, THE MEDIA AND PUBLIC INTEREST

Innovation Journalism Vol.6 No.3, 1 June 2009.
by Carl-Gustav Linden

http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/injo-6-3.pdf

Innovation Journalism (InJo) has been promoted as a new type of media work that can be of value to stakeholders in the innovation eco-system, which means that it is mainly catering to particular interests. In some parts it resembles the “public sphere model” of Habermas. It is also presented as a business model in itself with strong links to the dominating “market model” of the media. This is limiting the scope of potential influence. Economic growth through innovations in social and physical technology is of interest to the society as a whole. This paper deals with the issue of how public interest in a larger perspective can be related to InJo. For this purpose possible stakeholders are mapped and discussed. The suggestion is that InJo can be framed as journalism dealing with long waves and the most important sources of economic growth and societal renewal.

ATTENTION AND REPUTATION IN THE INNOVATION ECONOMY

Innovation Journalism Vol. 6 No. 2 May 13, 2009
By Vilma Luoma-aho and David Nordfors

http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/injo-6-2.pdf

The paper suggests that attention is a success component in today’s innovation economy, but that it must be connected to the formation of reputation to translate this success to the players in the ecosystem. The paper studies the roles of the different attention workers in creating reputation for innovations and inventions, and explains how attention and reputation contribute jointly to success. Attention and reputation are central topics related to innovation journalism, as well as innovation communication and public relations.

INNOVATION JOURNALISM, ATTENTION WORK, AND THE INNOVATION ECONOMY. A Review of the Innovation Journalism Initiative 2003-2009

Innovation Journalism Vol. 6 No. 1 May 1, 2009

By David Nordfors

Full article here: http://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/injo-6-1.pdf

This article presents a review of the innovation journalism initiative so far. The novel concepts of innovation journalism, attention work and innovation communication systems are present

ed and put into context, explaining why journalism and communication may be considered important components of the innovation economy, as well as how this may benefit society. The need for a new definition of ‘journalism’ is discussed, suggesting a definition based on the relation between journalism and its audience, rather than on its relation to the medium it uses for communicating with the audience. The role of journalism in the innovation economy is a novel academic research field. The rationale for this research is presented together with examples of plausible research topics. Innovation journalism initiatives are emerging in several places around the world. The seminal VINNOVA Stanford initiative at Stanford University is presented together with the national initiatives in Sweden, Finland, Slovenia, Pakistan, Mexico, and the EU.